Red Letter Day: ARMSTRONG OHANA

Riders and Words: Cash Berzolla & Anna Kalabukhova
Photos: Franck Berthuot
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Date: Saturday November 25th, 2023

The Armstrong crew certainly is a tight one, so a chance to gather together for a photoshoot in Hawaii was a great opportunity for some good times amongst friends, and all the while calling it “work”. It wasn’t without incident though…

Cash

Shooting with the Armstrong family has always been one of my favorite parts of being on the team. There is something about getting together with other athletes with the goal in mind to create cool and innovative content for a broad audience to see. The Armstrong crew has always made me feel right at home wherever we are in the world. On this lucky occasion, we were on my home island of Maui shooting for the newly released HA foil range. Product shoots are always interesting and definitely have their ups and downs, especially since mother nature isn’t always on your side. For this particular shoot, we went into it with the goal in mind to get some lifestyle shots, cruising through the beautiful waters of Maui and emphasizing the glide of the new foils, as well as getting some underwater moments. While this was our plan, the North Shore of Maui had different ideas for us. With a solid 10-foot ground swell from the NW, shooting anything in crystal clear water was nearly impossible. It wasn't a big deal though and we got some good action and lifestyle shots before we headed over to the west side of Maui to get some more calm shots. Creating content with such an awesome and upbeat crew made everything so much easier and well off. Other than the raw talent from Mateo Ell, Tati Grant, and Anna Kalabukhova, having great people behind the cameras like Slater Neborsky and Frankie Berthuot makes the difference. When everyone is stoked to be doing what they’re doing, shooting footage like this is really the best thing you can ask for. I think the content we got for this shoot turned out better than we ever could have imagined. I love working on shoots at home and in the islands of Hawaii because the scenery is amazing and most importantly the people are so friendly and easy to work with.

“The first thing Mateo did was try to beach start in about a foot of water, and proceeded to slam into a rock about three pumps in…”

Anna

Maui was actually my first trip with the Armstrong family since signing with the team back in September. I couldn’t have been more excited to go to Maui to shoot the new HA foils since I’d been there before multiple times for winging and kiting missions. It was so much fun getting to ride with the boys, mainly because of how entertaining they are – I got a feel for their personalities real quickly just through a couple of foiling sessions. When we got to the beach at Thousand Peaks, the first thing Mateo did was try to beach start in about a foot of water, and proceeded to slam into a rock about three pumps in, flying off of his board in one catastrophic splash. With his front wing and his will both (remarkably) undamaged, he went straight back to the beach for his second attempt, where it went much smoother – avoiding the trajectory straight to the rock, he managed to coast off of the shore in a running start, then effortlessly pumped out the 400 feet or so to the break where he connected about four waves before inevitably again hitting a rock. All of us still at the shore – me, Tati, and Cash – were dying laughing at the series of events and proceeded to paddle out with our foils upside down (we were well aware of the dangers of the rocks now) to meet Mateo out at the break. The rest of the session was super cruisy – the boys kept pumping around the break in circles, Cash occasionally stopping to crack a joke or plan out the teams for our future pickleball match (one that remains still in the future). Tati and I were both happy to catch the small waves at our own pace and cruise around back and forth on the new HA foils, the boys cheering us on for each wave. I enjoyed how easy the vibe was of the team. We were all super stoked to be in each other’s presence, all of us sharing the joy for the same sport.